That’s great to hear, I really hope the xone is as strong as our beloved elektron gear!
I’m going to pull the trigger on it next Tuesday, hopefully my wife does not leave me 
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It’s great for live use - and as a summing mixer to record into your DAW. I"m mostly a hiphop/reggae DJ and use a Pioneer S9 and 1200s with Serato to DJ, but for making music the Xone96 works really well.
Today I got the xone 96, and I can only say that it is impressive, I’m going to use it for turntables, and production/studio duties. At the moment I’ve only tested with AR and DN and I can only that it is amazing! The eq is precise as hell, the filters sounds pretty good, and the “crunch” is amazing.
At first I saw the “crunch” pretty gimmicky, but I have found that it is a very good tool for designing my kicks. I was experimenting routing a kick from the Rytm to the channel A, and there equalizing it, next I turned on a high pass with a little bit of resonance, and later was trying different amounts of “crunch”, and wow the sound of the kick was amazing, gave it a lot of color.
Comparing with the analog distortion of the rytm have a pretty unique sound, different flavour of course but not worse, I really like it.
The mixer it seems pretty sturdy and
durable, so I hope it lasts for many years.
Tomorrow I’m going to connect it to ableton and try the soundcard.
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I use it for production too - rytm, digitakt, digitone, virus ti
Best part are the two send/returns - using it with the zen delay and eventide space reverb.
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I just bought an inexpensive 4 channel Numark DJ mixer to experiment with using it for live jams. If things go well I’ll be selling that and my Zone:23 for a top end 4 or 5 channel dj mixer. Was defo looking at Allen and Heath for that.
I use the Zone:23 with my Pioneer XDJs and a DJ mixer feels way more familiar for live purposes than a studio mixer. I’ve never used a studio mixer I felt comfortable with for live use…from big 24 channel mixers to little desktop jobs.
Quick update: I’ve bought the Xone 96, I am very happy so far. The sound is great and it’s very versatile. One drawback I’ve discovered (it was clear looking at the pictures, but I didn’t notice) is that channels A and B do not have the X/Y switch, so I cannot assign the effects to X and the dry signals to Y and switch using the XY fader. I’ll deal with it, no big deal.
I have my AH return on chan 4 for this reason. Super nice to fade it in with the butter smooth cross fader. Really became integrated in my playing style.
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maybe zoom L12 / L20 / TASCAM MODEL 24 ?
great topic bu i am lost a bit:
1 - how many input channels are visible in Ableton (6 stereo = 12 mono) ?
2- how many channels can you record at the same time ? (4 stereo + 2 return or 4 stereo + master) ?
3- channel are recorded post or pre-eq/filter ?
4- master insert is recorded to the master ?
5- what is the best way to INPUT mono synths in the xone 96 ?
6- i plan to use 1 external stereo FX pedal, where would i have to insert the OUT cables from the pedal ?
did you manage to use aggregate ? does it work well ?
if not you can try loopback software to aggregate.
- yes, 6 stereo = 12 mono
- you can record all 6 stereo channels simultaneously, which are: mixer channels 1-4, Send 1 (watch out it’s Send, not return), and then either Send 2 or Master, optionally
- They are recorded pre-eq, post gain
- Master insert is not recorded, they say it’s supposed to be used for room eq / compression
- Mono synths with a mono jack can go into Channel A, B, C, D. Careful that channel ABCD are not assignable to X/Y. Channels A and B have a 3 band eq with sweepable mids.
Mono synths that support a stereo jack, can go with a stereo jack 6.3mm to RCA into channels 1-4, which are automatically recorded.
To record channels A and B, you have to assign them to sends 1 and 2, which are recorded. If you do this, you cannot use the sends for other stuff.
To be clear, when doing this you use both R and L sides of the same channel for 1 mono synth. An alternative is to assign a mono synth to R and another to L, but in this case you would hear them on separate speakers.
This may not be ideal for live sessions, but it allows you to record up to 12 mono synths at the same time. - The most common routing would be to insert the OUT cables from the pedal into one of the channels ABCD. If you want to record the OUT of the pedal, you could insert it to A and assign A to send 1, which is recorded. Then you use send 2 to feed the pedal from the other tracks.
I have not used aggregate device with it yet, but I expect it to work fine.
I hope this is clear and helps you.
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Not sure if this was answered, but definitively YES, you can use a phones output as 3rd aux send (it’s sent post EQ).
In my case, I route the Phone 2 jack output into the Digitakt stereo inputs, with a stereo jack 3.5mm to Y splitter 2 mono jack 6.3mm.
In this way I can sample into the digitakt any of my analog synths at any time. I love this capability.
This is my current setup:
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Used to play on the Xone 92, it seemed, every other party, some 12 years ago.
Good to see the 96 added a channel fader curve switch. That exponential-only curve on the 92 really crept up on ya!
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what’s your favourite curve, and why?
Linear, because in a loud environment you have to use your eyes as much as your ears.
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in case of a live jam when you use 4 channels + SEND/RETURN for pedals, the only way to record all would be ===> REC OUT to another soundcard , right ?
It depends. If it’s just one pedal, you can plug it to channel A, and assign channel A to send 1, which gets recorded. Then assign channels 1-4 to send 2, optionally.
Send 2 goes into the pedal.
You can record the master bus pre master insert over usb on channels 11/12. However, usb 11/12 toggles between master and send 2. So unless your using a master insert fx/comp you can record all on chans 11/12.
See the jpg above for audio on USB - Xone 96 Mixer - #236 by s3kn0tr0n1c
Nice setup. I do like a good schematic!
Thanks for the detailed info.
I’ve still got one eye on a 96 but my current financial situation dictates otherwise.
We’re going to try and move house this year, so no big purchases for a while.
Maybe next year.
excellent setup !
how do you record it - master USB to laptop + all channels PrE-eq ?
i guess the only inconvenience is that you loose the “delay” as B is not recorded